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"Saying the Catechisim" 

■Sebentg-'JFibc J|fars Srja, 
AND THE HISTORICAL RESULTS. 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE NEW ENGLAND HISTORIC - 
GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY,, DEC. 4, 1S78. 



DORUS CLARKE, D.D., 

BOSTON. 



\\, >. 1879. ^^^y/ 



BOSTON: 
LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS. 

NEW YORK: 
CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM. 

1879. 



TT 



■ WrU 



At the regular monthly meeting of the New England His- 
toric-Genealogical Society, held Wednesday, Dec. 4, 1878, 
a paper was read by the Rev. DoRUS Clarke, D.D., entitled 
" Saying the Catechism Seventy-five Years Ago, and the 
Historical Results." On motion of the Rev. William M. 
Cornell, D.D., the following resolution was unanimously 
adojDted : — 

'■'■Resolved., That the thanks of this Society be tendered to the Rev. 
Dr. Clarke for the very able, earnest, and valuable Address delivered by 
him at this meeting." 

Attest : 

DAVID G. RASKINS, Jun., 

Recording Secretary. 



Copyright, 1879, 
By lee and SHEPARD. 



Electrotyped and Printed by Rand, Avery, &^ Co , Boston. 



ADDRESS, 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, — 
The town of Westhampton, in the county of 
Hampshire, and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 
presented, some three-quarters of a century since, 
certain traits of the Puritanical character which 
I desire to stereotype upon the memory of this 
body of learned men ; and I hope that in that 
regard ''history" will "repeat itself." It is my 
intention to keep strictly within the limits of 
historical investigation, and to honor that depart- 
ment of our work, which searches out the under- 
lying reasons for this and that line of conduct, 
and which traces events up to their causes ; so that 
we may know what courses in life, unless counter- 
acted, will eventuate in their legitimate results. 
And I am sure, that, if a somewhat graver cast 
than is usual be given to this address, it will not 
only be pardoned but gratefully accepted by gen- 



SAYING THE CATECHISM. 



tlemen, whose researches in history and genealogy 
naturally lead them to take serious views of life, 
and who are themselves now standing amid the 
shadows of another departing year, and which 
may be our last. The gravity of the occasion, so 
far as I am concerned, is also enhanced by the 
probability, that this is the last time I shall 
have the honor to address this Society from this 
rostrum, where in past years you have so often 
heard my voice, and with a degree of attention 
and respect which commands my most grateful 
acknowledgment. I know very well that anec- 
dotes, and even very stale anecdotes about minis- 
ters and deacons, form the staple of some very 
popular papers ; and, though no one relishes a 
good anecdote or a good joke more than myself, 
I have sometimes been led to question the refine- 
ment of that taste and the correctness of that 
judgment, which deal largely in such materials 
before such a Society as this. History has been 
defined to be "philosophy teaching by example." 
The ''example" I am about to present is one 
which, I think, "philosophy teaches" must be 
imitated throughout the world, in spirit if not in 



LOCATION OF WESTHAMPTON. 



form, to save civilized society from being over- 
thrown by radicalism. 

LOCATION OF WESTHAMPTON. 

Tlie town of Northampton, as it was originally 
laid out, embraced the present towns of North- 
ampton, Easthampton, Southampton, and West- 
hampton. Westhampton is the most picturesque 
of these four municipalities. It was incorpo- 
rated in the year 1778. In its palmiest days it 
numbered only about nine hundred souls, and 
now it contains only about six hundred. It lies 
partly in the valley of the Connecticut River, and 
partly upon the hills which form the eastern slope 
of the Green Mountain range, which extends from 
Canada to -Long Island Sound. My eyes first saw 
the light of day upon the Alpine heights, one 
mile west of the centre; and, in the vast and beau- 
tiful valley below, lay Northampton, Easthampton, 
Amherst, Hadley, South Hadley, Mount Tom, 
Mount Holyoke, and the serpentine Connecticut, 
winding its way to the ocean, — all of which were 
photographed indelibly, in variegated mosaics, 
upon my youthful imagination. Often was my 



SAV/ATG THE CATECHISM. 



taste regaled with the grandeur of that splendid 
panorama of hill and dale, of mountain and valley, 
of churches and hamlets. Some new and beauti- 
ful features have since been added to that magni- 
ficent spectacle, when viewed from the loftier 
eminences, such as the Williston Seminary, the 
Smith College, the Agricultural College, and 
Amherst College. Mount Washington presents 
sublimer scenery, but none so beautiful. It was a 
fine place, too, for the display of Heaven's pyro- 
technics and artillery. Well do I recollect how 
sometimes the firmament gathered blackness, and 
*Hhe rain descended, and the floods came, and 
the winds blew," and the lightnings gleamed and 
the thunders crashed along the mountains, and the 
earth recked under the fury of the tempest as it 
swept sublimely along down into the vast valley 
beneath ; and how the commingled elements raged 
and rolled and surged over Easthampton and 
Northampton, and sent back their deafening roar 
to my ears ; while the setting sun came out in his 
brightness to look at the scene, lighted up the 
hills around me with his smiles, painted rainbows 
on the departing storm, and every twig and leaf 



CHARACTER OF MR. HALE. 



and flower glittered with tears of gratitude that 
the fearful tornado was overpast and gone. 

The early settlers of that town were a godly 
generation. Divine Providence sifted Northamp- 
ton, Easthampton, Southampton, and Dedham in 
Massachusetts, and Colchester, Lebanon, and Cov- 
entry in Connecticut, to find seed good enough 
wherewith to sow those hills and valleys. The 
names of the pioneers may not be found in the 
registers of heralds, but I verily believe that most 
of them will be found in the ''Book of Life." 
Neither they nor their descendants there have 
been distinguished for wealth. There are no 
wealthy people in that town, and, what is better, 
there are no poor people there. As Defoe said of 
the Scotch, — 

" They are rich compared to poor, and poor compared to 
rich." 

But they are and were '' rich towards God." 

CHARACTER OF MR. HALE. 

A Congregational church was early organized 
in that town, and the Rev. Enoch Hale of Coven- 
try, Conn., was chosen their pastor. Mr. Hale 



SAYING THE CATECHISM. 



was an elder brother of Nathan Hale, of Revolu- 
tionary memory, who was arrested as a spy and 
executed by the British, Sept. 22, 1776, who then 
had possession of New York. President Sparks 
says, ''No young man of his years put forth a 
fairer promise of future usefulness and celebrity." 
So profoundly was Enoch impressed by the tragic 
circumstances of his brother's death, that he was 
never known to allude to him unless he was led 
to do it by others. The Rev. Mr. Hale was the 
grandfather of the Rev. Edward Everett Hale. 

Mr. Hale was ordained pastor of the infant 
church in Westhampton in my grandfather Ly- 
man's barn. The council performed the service 
on the barn floor, and the audience occupied the 
scaffolds and the haymows, and extemporized 
seats upon the rocks and the logs outside of the 
unfinished building. The pastor and the church 
were firm believers in the Evangelical system of 
Faith, as it is set forth in the Westminster Con- 
fession and in the Larger and Shorter Catechisms. 
The inhabitants were united to a most unusual 
degree, both in politics and religion. In later 
years, at several gubernatorial elections, Caleb 



CHARACTER OF MR. HALE. 



Strong had all the votes of the town, with only 
one or two exceptions. In ecclesiastical polity, 
the people were as unitedly Congregationalists, as 
they were unitedly Evangelical in doctrine, and 
they are nearly as much so at the present day. 
No other church exists in the town, and, to 
present appearance, no other church ever will. 
The style of Mr. Hale's preaching was calm and 
judicious, but not eloquent or moving. His habits 
were systematic and exact to a proverb. Every 
family in the neighborhood could regulate its 
long kitchen clock, by the precise punctuality with 
which he would arrive to preach an appointed 
lecture. On the Sabbath, every man who was 
earlier or later than he at public worship, doubted 
the correctness of his own chronometer. // mtist 
be zvrong, for Mr. Hale was in the pulpit sooner or 
later than they were in the pews. He was for 
many years the Scribe of the General Association 
of Congregational Ministers in this State. On 
one occasion, the meeting of that body was held 
seventy-five miles distant from his place of resi- 
dence. Five minutes only were to elapse before 
the hour for opening the meeting would come. 



lO SAYING THE CATECHISM. 

Speculation was rife among the members already 
on the ground, as to the probability of his being 
there in season to call the meeting to order at the 
appointed moment, which was his official duty. 
One clergyman, who knew him better than the 
others, remarked, that the town clock may be 
wroncr ; that, if Mr. Hale should not be there 
when the clock struck, it would only prove that the 
clock was out of repair, for it was certain that he 
would be there precisely at the appointed moment. 
As minutes and half -minutes wore away, curiosity 
became intense and intenser ; but, before the last 
minute expired, Mr. Hale drove up in his " one 
boss shay," entered the church, and called the 
meeting to order. 

With the exception of one excellent family 
which came from Dedham, all observed Saturday 
evening as a part of the Sabbath, and kept it with 
the most conscientious strictness. On the Sabbath, 
no work was done except ''works of necessity and 
mercy," and no recreations were allowed. Family 
prayer, morning and evening, was universal ; and 
the children were thoroughly instructed in the 
great articles of the Christian faith, as it was held 



CHARACTER OF MR. HALE. ii 

by their fathers. The first meeting-house was 
built soon after Mr. Hale's ordination ; and though 
it exhibited many symptoms of decay, and though 
old Boreas often treated himself to the music of 
the clatter of its doors and windows and shingles, 
it was still standing within my own recollection. 
It was innocent of paint and bell and steeple, as 
well as of a thin congregation on the Sabbath. 
Rain or shine, snow or hail, lightning or thunder, 
the people were all there, including many of the 
small children, and even infants, who sometimes 
furnished music gratuitously, — solos, duets, and 
choruses. The other exercises of the church were 
conducted with the greatest reverence and deco- 
rum. Father Hale carried his systematic habits 
so far, that he used to read, and to request his 
brethren who occasionally preached for him to 
read, Watts's Psalms and Hymns rigJit straight 
throiLgJi in course, whatever might be their rele- 
vancy, or want of relevancy to the subject of the 
sermon. He always preached with his accurate 
watch lying on the pulpit before him, and, as he 
used to pray with his eyes wide open, he was care- 
ful to cut his sermons and prayers to the pre- 



SAYING THE CATECHISM. 



scribed length ; and, if the moment for closing 
either arrived when he was in the middle of a 
sentence, the remaining part was sure to be de- 
spatched in short metre. 

Father Hale was a laborious student, — a trait 
which has distinguished his descendants in this 
city. It was his rule, during his long ministry, to 
have twenty sermons on hand which he had not 
preached, so as to be prepared for any emergency 
which might befall him. If, by stress of business 
or ill health, he had made any innovations upon 
the twenty undelivered sermons, he redoubled his 
exertions to make that number good. In the year 
1816 his house was destroyed by fire, and his 
library and three thousand sermons were burned 
up in it. Nothing daunted by that great calamity, 
he set himself, in his old age, to the work of pre- 
paring twenty extra sermons, so as to preserve his 
ideal of pulpit safety. I hold in my hand the 
seventy-third number of the new series, which 
was preached in Westhampton in 181 7, — the year 
I graduated from college. These incidents may 
furnish a hint to my brethren who keep no 
sermons beforehand, and who, perhaps, do not 



SAYING THE CATECHISM. 13 

begin their preparations for the Sabbath till 
Saturday morning. But system and punctuahty 
were, by no means, all the virtues which were con- 
spicuous in Father Hale's character. The excel- 
lence of his example was proverbial. His whole 
Hfe was modelled upon the principles of the Bible, 
which he did so much, by his preaching, his 
example, and his instructions in the Catechism, to 
spread among his people. 

I thought it necessary to make these prelimi- 
nary sketches, that you may be able to form an 
intelligent opinion of the factors — hereditary, 
aesthetic, and religious — which made up the char- 
acter of the people of Westhampton ; but, in doing 
it, I have perhaps detained you too long, Mr. Presi- 
dent and gentlemen, from "Saying the Catechism." 
Not that I suppose that you can '' say " it as well, 
if at all, as the youth in Westhampton in those 
olden times ; but I wish to inform you how the 
heroes of my narrative '' said " it, as the phrase 
then was. 

SAYING THE CATECHISM. 

I hold in my hand a very small book, which 
perhaps some of you, in all your researches 



14 SAYING THE CATECHISM. 

through the large hbraries in this country and in 
Europe, have never discovered. I know not who 
compiled it, but it has done more to form the New- 
England character than any book except the Bible. 
Allow me, then, to introduce you to the " New- 
England Primer." Here we have, among many 
other things, this important informxation : — 

" In Adam's fall 
We sinned all." 

" The cat doth play, 
And after slay." 

" The dog doth bite 
The thief at night ; " 

and so on. Here is also a picture of John Rog- 
ers, burning at the stake in Smithfield, in 1554, 
and "• his wife and nine small children, and one at 
the breast," looking on. Does that mean that he 
had nine children or ten } I have stumbled, then, 
upon two unsettled historical questions : one is. 
Who compiled the New England Primer? and the 
other is. How many children did JoJin Rogers 
have? We are in the habit of settling such ques- 
tions here, but we have not time to settle these 
now. 



SAYING THE CATECHISM. 15 



The *' Primer" which was used in Westhampton 
was a square book. It was not in this oblong, 
modern form. This book, therefore, does not look 
to me quite orthodox outside ; but I have no 
doubt it is orthodox inside, for it contains the 
Catechism. The Catechism, as we studied and 
recited it, was divided into three parts. The first 
part comprehended all between, *' What is the 
chief end of man.?" and ''the First Command- 
ment." The second embraced all the "Command- 
ments," together with "What is required.?" and 
"What is forbidden.?" in them all, and "The rea- 
sons annexed for observing them." The third in- 
cluded all from the question, "Is any man able 
perfectly to keep the commandments of God.?" to 
the end. The Catechism was required, by the 
public sentiment of the town, to be perfectly com- 
mitted to memory, and recited in the meeting- 
house by all the children and youth between the 
ages of eight and fifteen. These public recita- 
tions were held on three different Sabbaths in the 
summer of every year, with perhaps a fortnight 
intervening between each of them, to allow suf- 
ficient time for the children to commit to memory 
the division assigned. 



1 6 SAYING THE CATECHISM. 

When the time arrived for commencing the 
exercise, the excitement was tremendous. As 
the great battle of Trafalgar was about to begin 
between the immense armadas of England and 
France, Lord Nelson displayed at the masthead 
of his flag-ship, *'Thc Victory," the exciting proc- 
lamation, streaming in the wind, '* England ex- 
pects EVERY MAN TO DO HIS DUTY ! " That proc- 
lamation woke all the national enthusiasm of his 
officers and men, and strung every nerve for the 
awful conflict. Scarcely less imperative and ex- 
citing was the annual announcement by Father 
Hale : " Sabbath after next, the first division of the 
Catechism will be recited here.'' It sent a thrill 
through the town. 

There was "no discharge in that war." Public 
sentiment demanded the most implicit obedience 
by all concerned. The old Primers were looked 
up, new ones bought, and the parents set their 
children to the work at once and in earnest. 
Every question and every answer must be most 
thoroughly committed to memory, verbatim et lit- 
eratim et piinctuatim. The time for recitation 
was at the close of the afternoon service. All the 



SAYING THE CATECHISM. 17 

children in the town, dressed in their *' Sabba-day 
clothes," were arranged shoulder to shoulder, — 
the boys on the one side, and the girls on the 
other of the broad aisle, beginning at the ** dea- 
con's seat " beneath the pulpit, and extending 
down that aisle, and round through the side aisles 
as far as was necessary. The parents — '' children 
of a larger growth" — crowded the pews and gal- 
leries, tremblingly anxious that their little ones 
might acquit themselves well. Many a mother 
bent over that scene with solemn interest, hand- 
kerchief in hand, the tears of joy ready to fall if 
their children should succeed, and tears of sorrow 
if they should happen to fail. It was a spectacle 
worthy of a painter. 

Father Hale, standing in the pulpit, put out the 
questions to the children in order ; and each one, 
when the question came to him, was expected to 
wheel out of the line, a la militaire, into the broad 
aisle, and face the minister, and make his very 
best obeisance, and answer the question put to 
him without the slightest mistake. To be told^ 
that is, to be prompted or corrected by the minis- 
ter, was not a thing to be permitted by any child, 



SAYING THE CATECHISM. 



who expected thereafter to have any reputation in 
that town for good scholarship. In this manner 
the three divisions of the Catechism were succes- 
sively recited, while many were the " knees which 
smote one against another ; " and many are the 
persons who recollect, and will long recollect, the 
palpitating heart, the tremulous voice, the quiver- 
ing frame, with which for several years they went 
through that terrible ordeal. But, if the nervous 
effects of that exercise were appalling, the moral 
influence was most salutary ; and I desire, in this 
presence, to acknowledge my deep obligations to 
my parents, who long since, as I trust, '* passed 
into the skies," for their fidelity in requiring me, 
much against my will, to commit to memory the 
Assembly's Catechism, and to *'say" it six or 
seven years in succession in the old meeting-house 
in Westhampton, amid tremblings and agitations 
I can never cease to remember. 

But this was not all. The Catechism formed a 
part of the atrricichnn of all the common schools 
in that town for half a century, and was as thor- 
oughly taught and as regularly recited there as 
Webster's Spelling-Book, or Murray's English 



SAYING THE CATECHISM. 19 

Grammar. It was as truly a classic as any other 
book. It was taught everywhere, — in the family, 
in the school, and in the church, — indeed, it was 
the principal intellectual and religious pabiUiun of 
the people. We had it for breakfast, and we had 
it for dinner, and we had it for supper. The en- 
tire town was satiLrated with its doctrines, and it 
is almost as much so at the present day. The 
people could not, of course, descend into the pro- 
found depths of the metaphysics of theology, but 
they thoroughly understood the system which was 
held by the fathers of New England. They were 

not indeed prepared to 

" Reason high 
Of Providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate, 
P'ixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute ; " 

but they so clearly apprehended what they be- 
lieved to be the truths of the Bible, 

" That to the height of this great argument 
They could assert Eternal Providence, 
And justify the ways of God to men." 

The practice of instructing the children thor- 
oughly in the Catechism, was very general through- 



20 SAYING THE CATECHISM. 

out New England for a century and a half after 
the arrival of "The Mayflower." Judge Sewall, 
in the first volume of his ** Diary," just published 
by the Massachusetts Historical Society, speaks 
of a certain Sabbath, which, in the Old South 
Church in this city, was called *' The Catechising 
Day,'' and of his wearing a new article of clothing 
in honor of that specially important custom. But 
I believe that that excellent practice was nowhere 
so thoroughly carried out, as it was in Western 
Massachusetts. That was largely owing to the 
transcendent influence of yonathan Edwards, — 
claruin et venerabile nomcn, — who was looked up 
to by the ministers in Boston and Scotland as the 
oracle in all metaphysical and theological matters. 
His influence in Northampton and Stockbridge, 
and in the regions round about, is visible to-day 
in the peculiar moral and religious graiit of the 
people. 

This, ladies and gentlemen, was the way the 
Nczv England cJiaracter was formed. Professor 
James Russell Lowell, in "The Biglow Papers," 
has given us a very seasonable caution in relation 
to this matter. He says, with only a slight altera- 



THE GENERAL RESULTS. 21 

tion, if his serio-comic style and orthography be 
admissible, — 

" Young folks are smart, but all ain't good thet's new; 
I guess the gran'thers they knowed sunthin', tu. 
They toiled an' prayed, built sure in the beginnin', 
An^ 7iever let us tech the ii7iderpuinin\^'' 

THE GENERAL RESULTS. 

But it is time to consider some of the results, — 
some of the mental and moral effects, of this sys- 
tem of thorough religious training upon the people 
of Westhampton. It was continued through the 
lifetime of nearly two generations, and therefore 
long enough fairly to test its real influence upon 
human character and life, — long enough to deter- 
mine, historically, what were its legitimate effects 
upon individuals and upon society. I know it is 
difficult to ascertain precisely all the influences, 
open and secret, remote and proximate, which 
form the web and the woof of individual and mu- 
nicipal character ; but in this case those formative 
factors were so immediate and so obvious, that 
there is little room to doubt what they were. In- 
deed, there is no more reason to doubt what they 



SAYING THE CATECHISM. 



were, than there is to question the veracity of the 
multiplication table, or the excellence of the Ten 
Commandments. The general i^csidt was, and 
still is, that sobriety, large intelligence, sound 
morality, and unfeigned piety, exist there to a 
wider extent than in any other community of 
equal size within the limits of my acquaintance. 
Revivals of religion have been of great frequency, 
purity, and power ; and to-day more than one-tJiird 
of the population, all told, are members of that 
Congregational Church. Nine-tentJis of the in- 
habitants are regular attendants on public worship. 
Thirty-eigJit of the young men have graduated 
from college, have entered the learned professions, 
and especially the Christian ministry ; and several 
of them have risen to positions of the highest use- 
fulness and honor. These, I believe, are much 
larger percentages of educated men, of Christian 
men, of useful men, than can be found in any 
other town in this or any other commonwealth. 

I have resided in that town sixteen years, in 
Williamstown four years, in Andover three years, 
in Blandford twelve years, in Springfield six years, 
and in Boston and its vicinity thirty-seven years, 



THE GENERAL RESULTS. 23 

and have therefore had some opportunities to 
form an intelligent judgment of the relative con- 
dition, moral and religious, of different parts of 
this Commonwealth ; and I say it '' without fear 
or favor, or hope of reward ; " I say it with no 
invidious spirit whatever ; I say it simply because 
historic verity peremptorily requires that it should 
be said, — that I have nowhere found, in these 
communities generally, such profound reverence 
for the name of JEHOVAH, the Infinite and Per- 
sonal God ; such unquestioning faith in the divine 
authority of the Holy Scriptures ; such devout and 
conscientious observance of the Sabbath ; such 
habitual practice of family prayer; such respect 
for an oath in a court of justice ; such anxiety for 
revivals of religion ; such serious determination to 
enter into the kingdom of heaven ; and such deep 
conviction that it never can be reached, except by 
repentance for sin, and faith in a crucified Re- 
deemer, as I have seen in that town. That the 
moral and religious condition of things there is 
not what it should be, is unquestionably true; but 
that it is, on the whole, better, yes, much better, 
than that in any other municipality on the face of 



24 SAYING THE CATECHISM. 

the earth, which has not been similarly educated, 
is my honest belief. And, if this be true, this su- 
perior Christian tone of society must have had an 
adequate cause ; and it is our duty, as members of 
this Historical Society, to ascertain that cause, and 
let it be known for the information and imitation 
of the world. That cause, — so far as I am able to 
trace effects back to their causes, — can be found, 
not in the local position of that town, not in its 
scenery, not in its peculiarly favorable situation 
for the prosecution of any of the arts of life, not 
in the wealth created by great manufacturing in- 
dustries, for all the manufactories of which it can 
boast, I believe, are a gristmill and a sawmill ; 
but that cause is its more thorough indoctrination, 
from its settlement down to the present day, in 
the great truths of the Bible, creating public sen- 
timent, permeating domestic life, giving vigor to 
conscience, converting men to Christ, and impreg- 
nating society, through all its ramifications, with 
a profounder sense of moral obligation. During 
my boyhood and youth, I never knew my father's 
house locked by any mechanical contrivance by 
day or night ; but it was locked with a lock of very 



EDUCATIONAL RESULTS. 



peculiar construction and strength. The Bible 
and the Catechism were the *' combination lock," 
which thoroughly protected every man's house. 
And let me tell you, gentlemen, exposed as we all 
are in these days of tramps and outlaws to depre- 
dations by day and by night, that the Bible and 
the Catechism form a "combination lock" of which 
no man holds a patent, and therefore you can use 
it without paying a royalty to anybody ; and a 
lock, too, which no burglar can pick, and no powder 
blow up. Put this lock, then, upon all your doors, 
upon all your safes, upon all your banks, and then 
you and your cashiers can sleep quietly at night ; 
and let me say that neither you nor they can 
sleep with perfect quietness under any other pro- 
tection. 

EDUCATIONAL RESULTS. 

The educational results of that method of learn- 
ing and '' Saying the Catechism " were also of the 
greatest importance. Committing so thoroughly 
to memory such a long series of questions and 
answers, and doing it for so many years, could not 
fail to exert a most marked influence upon the 
intellectual powers. It has long been a question 



26 SAYING THE CATECHISM. 

among educators how much the memory should 
be taxed. Some hold that it cannot be overloaded ; 
and others say that to charge it highly weakens 
its ability, and injures mental discipline. What is 
the memory.? It is the power of storing up for fu- 
ture use the knowledge we have already acquired, 
and of recalling it at pleasure. Direct efforts 
to do this are doubtless unwise ; but it can be 
sufficiently done in the ordinary processes of edu- 
cation without direct effort. To form a good 
memory, an idea must be deeply impressed upon 
the mind, and sometimes it must be repeated 
again and again to make a deep impression. 
That remarkable practice of committing to memory 
the Catechism, through so many years and with 
such punctilious accuracy, met precisely these 
requirements, and was observed to be a most 
important factor in the education of the people. 

Archbishop Whately says that '' the knowledge 
of mail s ignorance is the much neglected friend of 
human knowledge." But that practice of " Say- 
ing the Catechism " made the children of West- 
hampton pay special attention to that ''friend of 
human knowledge," — " the knowledge of man's 



EDUCATIONAL RESULTS. 27 

ignorance." If any thing can teach us our ''igno- 
rance," it is a ''knowledge" of the great truths 
taught in the Catechism. Those truths have 
depths which the longest finite line can never 
sound, and heights to which the boldest angelic 
wing can never soar. They teach us, too, that, 
though men may be highly intelligent on other 
subjects, they may be profoundly unacquainted 
with their relations to their Creator, Redeemer, 
and Judge. 

And, besides, the sharp definitions in the Cate- 
chism had the same educating effect. A good 
definition is said to be more than half the argu- 
ment. Daniel Webster had the remarkable faculty 
of stating his case so clearly to the court, the 
jury, and the senate, that the statement virtually 
argued the case. It is very much so with the 
definitions in the Catechism. The statement is 
the argument. For instance, take the follow- 
ing:— 

" What is the chief end of man t Man's chief 
end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever." 
This definition is so obviously accurate, and is so 
thoroughly corroborated by all our moral instincts, 



28 SAYING THE CATECHISM. 



that it has been the inspiration of many a noble 
life. 

** What is God ? God is a Spirit, infinite, eter- 
nal and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, 
holiness, justice, goodness, and truth." Can any 
thing be more comprehensive and exact } 

" What is sin } Sin is any want of conformity 
unto, or transgression of, the law of God." Here 
we have both the negative and the positive sides 
of sin, — tJic not doing, and the doing. There is 
nothing deficient, and nothing redundant. The 
definition covers the whole ground, and no more. 

*' What are the decrees of God t The decrees 
of God are His eternal purpose, according to the 
counsel of His own will, whereby, for His glory. 
He hath fore-ordained whatsoever comes to pass." 
Ao^ainst this rock of truth the waves of criticism 
have dashed for more than two centuries, and have 
made no impression. 

**Did all mankind fall in Adam's first trans- 
gression } The covenant being made with Adam, 
not only for himself, but for his posterity, all 
mankind, descending from him by ordinary gener- 
ation, sinned in him, and fell with him in h'ls first 



EDUCATIONAL RESULTS. 29 

transgression." That the fall of Adam somehow 
or other affects "his posterity," all history affirms ; 
the modus is infinitesimally unimportant, but the 
representative or corporate theory of the Catechism 
has been, historically, more generally accepted 
than any other. 

The Westminster Assembly of Divines were 
men of great intelligence, breadth of mind, and 
comprehensive knowledge of the Scriptures ; and 
their definitions are wonderful specimens of clear 
and exact thought, — as nearly mathematical as 
the case would admit. And then, too, such was 
their high sense of responsibility, that they took 
ample time to complete their work with the most 
scrupulous care. In the formation of their Con- 
fession of Faith, and the Larger and Shorter 
Catechisms, they sat more than five years, and 
held one thousand one hundred and sixty-three 
sessions. They considered, reconsidered, and 
considered over and over again every point, so as 
to reproduce the very mind and will of the Great 
Inspirer of the Scriptures, and make their work 
echo what they believed to be the real meaning of 
that Book. Now, such thorough drilling in the 



30 SAYING THE CATECHISM. 

Catechism, in its clear definitions and exact state- 
ments, — in the family, in the school, in the 
church, — could not but exert a most potent influ- 
ence upon the susceptible minds of the children 
and youth. It strengthened their memories ; it 
enlarged their views ; it gave power to conscience ; 
it awakened deep solicitude about the Eternal 
Future ; it formed the habit of clear thought, of 
close reasoning, and of logical deduction ; and if 
I may be forgiven the egotism of referring for a 
moment to my own experience, by way of illustra- 
tion, I would say, that I have been through the 
process of calculating eclipses of the sun which 
required the most sustained attention for several 
days in succession ; I have followed Butler in 
his profound discussions in "The Analogy;" and 
Leibnitz in his herculean effort to wrestle, in his 
"Theodicaea," with the tremendous problem of 
moral evil, and sought to settle that vexed ques- 
tion, yes, that vexatissima qitcEstio of theologians, 
Hozv could a Holy God permit sin to enter the 
tmiversef — but I have never discovered that all 
these calculations and discussions exerted a better 
influence upon my own mind, than my early fa- 



RESULTS UPON THE WORLD. 31 

miliarity with the Assembly's Shorter Catechism. 
That is indeed nearly as much a treatise on logic 
as it is on theology ; and it is a very martinet in 
mental discipline. 

RESULTS UPON THE WORLD. 

But what have been the results of this system 
of thorough religious training upon the world, 
through the influence of the children of West- 
hampton .'^ '' CondiLct,'' says Matthew Arnold, "is 
at least three-quarters of human life." What, 
then, has been the ''conduct" of the children of 
Westhampton .^ Let history answer; and I wish 
to hold your minds to a true historical perspective. 

As already stated, thirty-eight of her young men 
have obtained a liberal education, and several 
others have gone into professional life, and into 
other useful vocations, without the benefit of a 
collegiate course of study. But let me be more 
specific. Twenty-three of these young men have 
become clergymen. One of them has been pastor 
of an important church in this city, and President 
of the Andover Theological Seminary. Others 
have been settled in churches of other cities and 



S2 SAYING THE CATECHISM. 

towns in this Commonwealth ; and others still, in 
Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, In- 
diana, Michigan, Wisconsin, and California. One 
has lived eighteen years in the kraals of Southern 
Africa, teaching the benighted Hottentots the 
way to heaven ; and another, for twenty-eight 
years, has performed missionary labor in Western 
Asia, through the exactions of the Turkish Gov- 
ernment and the horrors of the recent war with 
Russia. One of them devised the famous ** pledge " 
which is working out the temperance reformation ; 
and published a volume of statistics, collected 
from experience in Europe and America, showing 
that men, in the long run, can perform more 
labor and contribute more to the material pros- 
perity of the country, by resting one day in seven 
and keeping the Sabbath holy, than by laboring 
continuously seven days in the week. Two farm- 
ers in Westhampton had two sons each who went 
to college, graduated with honor, became clergy- 
men, and rose to such eminence that the colleges 
made them all Doctors of Divinity, — whether that 
title be worth little or much. 

Take next the legal profession. Westhampton 



RESULTS UPON THE WORLD. 2>3 

has raised but few lawyers. When Peter the 
Great was in London, he saw the law Lords with 
their basf wi<is cominfi out of Westminster Hall ; 
and he asked, " Who are those fellows yonder ? " 
He was told that they were lawyers. *'What!" 
he exclaimed, — '' lawyers, lawyers ; what do they 
want so many lawyers here for .'* There are only 
two of them in Russia, and those I intend to hans^ 
as soon as I get home." I do not know that 
Westhampton people ever hung a lawyer, but I 
know that they have starved them ah out of that 
town. Though Westhampton has only about as 
much use for lawyers as Russia had in the days 
of that autocrat, — who was himself the maker, 
the expounder, and the executor of all the laws, 
— she has sent two to this city who have risen 
to distinction, and a few others to Ohio and other 
parts of the country ; and the mantles of Coke 
and Webster set gracefully on her sons. 

Take the medical profession. Westhampton 
has sent one physician to Boston, and one of the 
most eminent this city ever had ; another, of equal 
eminence, to the city of Cambridge ; another, 
to Pawtucket, R. I., who became so distinguished 



34 SAYING THE CATECHISM. 

that he was made the President of the Rhode 
Island Medical Society ; and another still to Cin- 
cinnati, O., who is in a most successful practice. 

Take, now, a few cases outside of the learned 
professions. In the dark days of 1776, that town 
was a wilderness ; but, at the call of patriotism, 
one of her sons left his young wife and infant 
child in a small house he had built in the woods, 
to struggle along as best they might, and hastened 
to Crown Point and Ticonderoga to defend his 
imperilled country, lost his health, and yet did 
much to effect the surrender of Burgoyne at Sara- 
toga. In the war of 1812, another came here, as 
a member of a company of militia, to defend 
Boston against an expected attack by the British. 
When the civil war broke out in the spring of 
1 86 1, several of the young men, at the call of the 
government, left their ploughs in the furrows, 
joined the army, and aspired to the very van of 
the conflict with the hosts of rebellion ; and those 
who were not killed or wounded in battle, stood 
manfully by their colors till the surrender of Lee 
at Appomattox. • 

Again : several of them, by their editorial labors, 



RESULTS UPON THE WORLD. 35 

have moulded the reh'gious and the pohtical opin- 
ions of the times, and the midtitude did not know 
where the influence came from which moulded 
them. One of them founded "The Boston Daily 
Advertiser," and conducted it several years with 
distinguished ability. The same gentleman, by 
his skill as an engineer, did more than any other 
man to effect the construction of the Boston and 
Worcester Railroad, and was the first President of 
that important corporation. It was principally, 
too, through his agency that the Cochituate water 
— that great public necessity and luxury — was 
brought into this city. Another has been a 
member of the Common Council, and another 
a member of the School Com.mittee of Boston. 
Another wrote ** Margaret," and other works of 
fiction, of great popularity. Another has written 
several volumes upon denominational and theologi- 
cal science, which have commanded the attention 
of some of the best thinkers on both sides of the 
Atlantic. Another accumulated materials for a 
history of several towns in Hampshire County, 
and the MSS. he left behind him ought to be in 
the hands of this Society. I see before me a 



36 SAYING THE CATECHISM. 

Westhampton boy — whose head, by the way, is 
very white for a boy — w4io was for many years a 
collector of the revenues of the United States in 
this city ; and an honest publican he was, for none 
of the revenues ** stuck to his fingers." That 
gentleman has also been quite largely connected 
with' the civil and the eleemosynary concerns 
of Boston. And I observe here another West- 
hampton boy, — whose head is equally venerable, 
— an eminent member of the Boston bar, and, 
besides, he holds an important relation to the 
Boston and Maine Railroad. I also see a West- 
hampton girl, only eighty-one years of age, — the 
youngest daughter of the Rev. Enoch Hale. 
That lady and myself were classmates in the 
centre school in that town, and we had many a 
friendly contest to see which would be at "the 
head." Being the minister's daughter, she was, 
of course, thought to be a little better than any- 
body else, and a better scholar than anybody else ; 
and if any boys or girls intended to beat her in 
reading or spelling, or in any other exercise, 
they would be obliged to "get up early in the 
morning." I am profoundly thankful that the 



RESULTS UPON THE WORLD. 37 

good Providence of God has spared her useful 
hfe so long, and has permitted her to come from 
her residence in the Hotel Berkeley, and honor 
us by her presence here to-day. One of the sons 
of VVesthampton is now the Treasurer of the 
Union Theological Seminary in the city of New 
York, has the management of the large endow- 
ments of that Institution, resides in a splendid 
mansion on the heights of Sing Sing, which over- 
look the beautiful scenery of the Hudson River ; 
and I will guarantee that he will never be sent 
to the State Prison at Sing Sing as a defaulter. 
Another has done business in Ohio, at the rate of 
five hundred thousand dollars a year, and the 
orders of her merchants have been sought for in 
London. Many of her sons and daughters have 
crone East, West, North, and South, as school- 
teachers. One of them penetrated into the wilds 
of Ohio, — her last day's journey of forty miles 
was performed on horseback, though she was 
quite unused to that mode of travelling, — estab- 
lished a school under almost every possible dis- 
couragement, which, nevertheless, she taught sev- 
eral years with much success ; married a lawyer, 



SS SAYING THE CATECHISM. 

who afterwards became a member of Congress ; 
and with his aid collected the means to build two 
churches, — one of wood, which was soon out- 
grown, and another of brick, which was an orna- 
ment of the place. At her solicitation, her friends 
in Massachusetts gave her a bell for the church ; 
and finally she died, and was followed to her 
tomb by a weeping village she had done so much 
to bless. I have sat in her seat in the church 
which she labored so indefatigably to erect, and 
where she ripened for heaven. And, last and 
least, one of the sons of Westhampton has within 
fifteen years done something for this Society, as 
its Historiographer, by writing and reading here 
one hundred and twenty-seven Memoirs of its de- 
parted members. 

Now, per contra. You, gentlemen, are all well 
versed in history, and therefore let me ask you, — 

Have you ever read of any man who was made 
a blatant politician by the Catechism } I fancy I 
hear you all answer. No. 

Did you ever read of a wily demagogue who 
was made such by the Catechism } No. 

Did you ever know any 'man who was brought 



THE SUMMARY. 39 



up on the Catechism, who did not vote on rainy 
days, and vote right, too ? No. 

Did you ever know a dcfaidter, or a communist, 
or a profane swearer, or a bull-dozer, who was 
brought up on the Catechism ? No. 

Have you ever heard that the Catechism has 
made men mean,, or trickisJi, or given to low 
cunnincr? No. 

But does not all history affirm, that such 
teaching tends to make men honorable, and large- 
hearted, and magnanimous, and patriotie, as well 
as Christian ? Yes, yes. 

And what Christianity did for Westhampton, 
it can do for Boston and New York, for Paris and 
Peking, for Timbuctoo and Louisiana. 

THE SUMMARY. 

All this, ladies and gentlemen, is not rhetorical 
embellishment, but a plain statement of facts. 
That the inhabitants of this small town, — retired 
among the hills and valleys of Hampshire County, 
with no literary advantages save those of the 
family, the church, the common school, and the 
Catechism ; with none of the aids of wealth, or 



40 SAYING THE CATECHISM. 

high social position, or extraordinary inherited 
talent, — that they have done all this, and more 
than this, I hold to be a marvel. You may as well 
attempt to " enact the play of Hamlet with Ham- 
let all left out," as to account for the intelligence, 
the good sqnse, the energy, the heroism, the piety, 
the self-sacrifice, and the success of the sons and 
daughters of Westhampton, in their diversified 
forms of usefulness all over the world, by pro- 
posing any other solution of the problem than the 
great truths of the Catechism, wrought into the 
very texture of society there, and working out 
their legitimate results upon the intellects, the 
hearts, and the life of that community. 

This thorough instruction of the children in the 
Catechism in New England was superseded by 
the Sabbath School. The present system traverses 
a much wider area of study ; but it is a serious 
question, whether what is gained in extent is not 
more than lost in depth. The Sabbath School, 
with all its excellences, does not by any means so 
strengthen the memory, or discipline the mind, or 
alarm the conscience, or effect, instrumentally, 
such satisfactory conversions, or make such indoc- 



THE SUMMARY. 41 



trinatecl and stable Christians. If an union of 
the two systems could be formed, and the Cate- 
chism could be made every year a part of the 
cnrriaduvi of the Sabbath School instruction, we 
might have all the advantages of the present sys- 
tem, and all the " historical benefits of * Saying the 
Catechism ' seventy-five years ago." 

And why not ? The Presidents of Williams and 
Amherst College drill their pupils systematically 
and thoroughly in the Catechism, as one of the 
classics in the college course ; and the Professors 
in the Theological Seminary at Andover are re- 
quired, by the statutes of that Institution, upon 
their induction into office, publicly to avow and 
subscribe their cordial belief in the Catechism, 
and to renew their allegiance to it, in the presence 
of the Trustees, every five years. If these dis- 
tinguished official educators of our young men 
give themselves to this work with such cordiality 
and zeal, why cannot all our Sabbath School super- 
intendents and teachers follow their lead with the 
best possible grace, and with the assurance of the 
highest success.^ Here, then, I rest my historical 
are:ument for the re-introduction of the Catechism 



42 SAYING THE CATECHISM. 

into the system of public education in New Eng- 
land. 

THE PERORATION. 

We live in a day, ladies and gentlemen, which 
presages unusual changes in the country and the 
world. We are beginning to see " distress of 
nations with perplexity." " Men's hearts failing 
them for fear, and for looking after those things 
which are coming on the earth." The unsettled 
relations between capital and labor, all over the 
civilized world, is the most portentous social prob- 
lem of the present day, and is likely to be so, I 
think, for some time to come. Fear on the side 
of capital, and hate on the side of labor, — two of 
the most powerful forces in human nature, — 
threaten to come into the fiercest collision. It is 
a question which comes home to "every man's 
business and bosom." It is a question, too, which 
we cannot evade, and which the world does not 
seem to have wisdom enough to settle. The 
question is becoming more and more pressing, as 
political power is every day passing more and 
more into the hands of the ignorant and the un- 
principled. 



THE PER OR A TION. 43 

In the United States, "universal suffrage" 
seems likely to be an universal danger. Commun- 
ism, which has already given France a taste of its 
quality, is threatening the stability of the govern- 
ments in Germany, Russia, and Italy, is men- 
acing the property holders in England, and is 
spreading anxiety among all thoughtful men in- 
this country. The more intelligent and far-seeing 
among us frequently refer to the subject, but with 
bated breath. We feel beneath our feet the initial 
heavings of the earthquake. The sacking of the 
Tuileries ; the attempts to assassinate the Emperor 
of Germany, the King of Italy, and high officials 
in Russia ; the Pittsburg riots ; the formation of 
secret communistic and socialistic societies all over 
Europe and the United States ; all of them atheis- 
tic and destructive, and already claiming a member- 
ship of millions, and holding that they will soon 
have a majority of the voters in this country, and 
are now biding their time for their intended attack 
upon the government, and social order, and the 
rights of property, — are all boding more serious 
evils than have yet befallen our beloved land. 
Where is the power that can neutralize and destroy 



44 SAVnVG THE CATECHISM. 

them ? Can education do it ? It can do it in part, 
but only in part, and in a very small part, too. 
Can wealth do it, when wealth itself is on trial ? 
Another influence, far more powerful than both 
wealth and intelligence, must be associated with 
them to insure success. That factor is Christiax- 
ITY, which Washington, in his Farewell Address, 
declared to be ^'indispensable'' to the maintenance 
of free institutions. And the Christianity which is 
so "■ indispensable'' is not a weak, aesthetic, fashion- 
able sentimentalism. Our distinguished Monday 
lecturer would tell us, that a ''lavender" religion 
is not the stuff to make martyrs of. It is said by 
those who are the most profoundly versed in reli- 
gious psychology, that the Bible, when it is the 
most thoroughly studied, and its spirit is the most 
thoroughly incorporated into the lives of men, 
produces a pecidiar type of thought and character, 
a.nd th3.t this peculiar tjpe has effected all the re- 
forms of much importance w^hich have taken place 
in the world. It originated and now sustains the 
great missionary and philanthropic movements of 
the day. We need, then, that peculiar type of 
thought and character, which can grapple with the 



THE PERORATION. 45 

Hijantic evils of the times. We need a strong, 
hearty, sturdy, transforming, conscientious religion, 
— such as made Luther intrepid, and Knox fear- 
less, and William of Orange patriotic ; the religion 
of Pym, and Hampden, and Vane ; the religion 
which brought the Pilgrims to Plymouth and the 
Puritans to Boston ; which made Scotland what it 
is in distinction from Dahomey, and New England 
what it is in distinction from Mexico, and West- 
hampton what it is in distinction from Hamburg in 
South Carolina. To the high endeavor of spread- 
ing this conserving, self-governing religion through 
all the unwashed and turbulent masses of society, 
and through all the rich and intelligent masses 
too, every Christian and every patriot is now 
imperatively summoned, — summoned in self-de- 
fence, as well as by higher motives. Rufus Choate 
said, that the days of our fathers were "the heroic 
age of New England." We need now another 
"heroic age." The preservation of our country 
from domestic violence ; of our property from 
communistic confiscation ; of our cities and towns 
from riots and incendiaries ; of our persons from 
assassination ; of our remains, after we are gone, 



46 SAYING THE CATECHISM. 

from being exhumed by night and carried away to 
extort money from oar children to recover them, 
and, if recovered, only perhaps to go round through 
the same process again, — our safety, I say, from 
all these perils lies primarily and principally in 
the Christianity of the Bible. 

*' Spread it then, and let it circulate," — 

East, West, North, South, — till it envelops, sanc- 
tifies, and governs the world ; and do it, too, with a 
firm and joyful trust in the Supreme Ruler, "whose 
is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and 

the VICTORY." 



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